Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Commissioner McGuinness to the Chamber. It is a pleasure to have her here. I thank her for such a comprehensive overview not just of her extensive portfolio, but also the key issues affecting Europe and Ireland today and into the future. It is good that the Commissioner began by talking about Europe Day and the 51 years that Ireland has been a member of the European Union since the referendum in 1972, which was historic, the signing of the accession treaty in 1973 and the key and remarkable changes we have experienced in this country, socially and economically since.

The Commissioner touched on a few of those changes. Workers' and women's rights, the improvements to our environment, our water and air quality, the continued support and sustainability of agriculture are some of the transformative changes that Ireland has experienced in those 50 years. It is fair to say that as a country, we are extremely proud of what we have achieved as a member of the European Union. We are extremely proud of our position today as a very strong key member and one of the oldest members of the Union. It is a proud moment for Ireland.

The Commissioner also referred to the solidarity that we have seen in the European Union. Over the last number of years, two of the key areas have been Brexit, which has dominated our political discourse for seven years, and the war in Ukraine. These events have shown our citizens the importance of being a member of the club and the importance of unity and solidarity. For Ireland and the other smaller member states, Brexit showed that we are valued and that we are the same as any other member state and will be protected. It is no wonder that we continue to have extremely high levels of support for our membership of the European Union. It has not waned one bit since we joined over 50 years ago.

In the short time I have, I would like to touch on the Commissioner's extensive portfolio. I am sure she is aware of the domestic banking and insurance situations and issues that we are dealing with. I appreciate that in her role, the Commissioner does not have control over all these issues, but they are nonetheless very important to raise. We are now dealing with our seventh mortgage interest rate increase. This is placing huge pressures on families and households, particularly those on tracker and variable rate mortgages. We need to see increased pressure from the European Union to allow people to move to different banks, which is not being facilitated in all regards at present.

We also need to see an increase in the interest rate on savings. That is one key issue that I hope the Commissioner can take back to her colleagues at the Commission. Banking is one of the few areas where everybody wants greater integration. We want more competition and we want access to the EU market. We see citizens of other member states getting 2% or 2.5% on savings while Irish customers get less than 1%. There are now companies such as Raisin Bank Ireland offering people the option to move their savings to other European banks. If I can have one takeaway from today it is that we want a fair deal for Irish consumers in the banking sector.